Sunday 23 September 2012

Wirral Waders

Spent a good few hours on Saturday at Hoylake failing miserably to see any peeps and dipping the sabs at BMW. Good to catch up with a few North Wales birders there, but a bad three dip day. Today having watched my beloved LFC being robbed by the ref/mancs i decided it was worth a quick scan at Hoylake on my way home. This time my luck was in. I had the place to myself surprisingly as I checked through the waders. A few more waders than yesterday and after a few scans I managed to pick out the semi p/ western. It never came very close and I'll leave it to the experts to decide which it is. Also 2 curlew sands and a few more sanderling than yesterday. On the next scan the White rumped sand also came into view. At last this weekend my luck was changing. A number of local birders arrived to see the peeps as I left. With all these Yanks about there has to be one or two lurking in North Wales! American goldie reported flying west over Hilbre this morning. Point of Ayr tomorrow?
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2 comments:

  1. Rob Sandham24 September 2012 at 16:48

    Good effort Kev especially after Sat. I picked the wrong day!

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  2. The Biggest Twitch27 September 2012 at 19:11

    Having looked at a lot of pics of the "Wirral peep" I think it should be left unidentified. The bird does not show, in the pics at least, enough features to positively ID it as either Western or Semi palmated Sandpiper. It is not a "normal" plumaged bird for either species and structure is also not classic for either! A very interesting bird which may prove identifiable in the future but at present I would not like to call it either way.

    Sadly not seen the bird in the field so my comments are based on the many pics seen and discusssion with birders here, that have seen the bird, and very experienced birders in the USA.

    I am lucky in that I have seen both species in the UK, and many in the USA, and none looked loke this bird. Would I still think like this if it was a lifer? Doubt it!!

    Alan
    www.thebiggesttwitch.com

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